Information & technology (IT) is a critical component in achieving an M&A strategy; without effective IT risk management, the value of the deal could be threatened or even eroded. IT risk management is a multi-disciplinary undertaking, and covers a variety of functional domains—ranging from data protection to change management. (See “Common IT Risk Management Areas” below) It is also a multi-faceted and complex undertaking that also entails consideration of a wide array of compliance requirements. As such, in a business environment with increasing emphasis on regulatory compliance, the role of IT risk management becomes more important as an enabler of the M&A strategy.

Often, many organizations need to demonstrate compliance with several overlapping requirements. A large financial company may need to meet Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX), Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLBA), Payment Card Industry data security standard (PCI), Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), and other mandates such as those from the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Counsil, Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, and Federal Trade Commission; a global transportation company may need to meet SOX, HIPAA, PCI, FTC, and European Union and Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation data protection requirements. The effort to meet these regulations often further complicates the efforts required to identify an approach and develop a strategy to mitigate risks when consolidating or separating companies.

Although many of these regulations address similar requirements such as data protection, access controls, transaction auditing, data availability and system monitoring; compliance with one set of regulations does not necessarily translate into compliance with another. The specifics of each set of regulations must be carefully evaluated.

Furthermore, international M&A transactions are likely to be much more complex than domestic transactions. In international transactions, companies must not only consider the regulatory compliance concerns noted above; they must also take into account the potential risks to corporate risk governance, employee data rights, customer data expectations, cross-border data flow, as well as the risk and compliance culture of the home countries of all entities involved in the M&A transaction. Failure to adequately address these factors could scuttle the transaction.

In this complex risk environment, it is clear that IT risk management must be effectively implemented to effectively address the myriad legal, regulatory, contract, and compliance requirements; otherwise, IT risk issues left unaddressed could fundamentally affect the overall M&A strategy and desired value creation.

Is the Loss of Business Value Real?
Based on Deloitte’s experience with M&A transactions, when IT risks, especially those risks that are compliance-driven, are not fully addressed, they can completely undermine the expected value creation of an M&A transaction. Generally, IT risk tends to impact M&A deal value in four primary areas: IT cost, EBITDA, technology, and regulatory and governance.

Examples of common IT risk issues that can have a serious negative impact on M&A transactions include:

Inevitable technology changes occur with disparate systems in combined entities and often create system consolidation delays and increase the security and compliance risks with the existing systems

The combined entity creates a new state, federal, and/or global jurisdiction operating footprint that often faces potential regulatory and financial risk from the possible compromise of personally identifiable information (PII)

The listing of IT assets assumed to be acquired during the financial due diligence process does not reconcile with detailed IT-listed assets, which results in lost value transfer

Sensitive information cannot be identified and located, which impedes, and can completely halt, application and system integration and/or isolation

The merged entities have disparate access management systems, but they have a need for immediate access to information, which often results in poorly consolidated systems that lead to segregation of duty conflicts and improper data access

Hidden liabilities in licenses and third-party contracts results in lost value and increased legal costs

Dated technology prevents customization and leads to lost business agility, opportunity and value

So, what is needed to minimize these types of risks from compromising an M&A transaction?

The IT Risk Management Framework
To mitigate the risks described above, M&A due diligance teams should incorporate a comprehensive IT risk management framework and readiness diagnostic into their planning and implementation efforts.

A sound IT risk management framework and readiness diagnostic has several key qualities. First, it is structured, risk-focused, and customizeable to cover small and large organizations. Next, it helps in the translation of information protection and technology issues into business risk impacts that will affect the overall M&A transaction. Finally, it helps address industry standards and regulatory requirements for each of the IT risk areas higlighted earlier in this paper.

The IT risk management framework and readiness diagnostic can be organized around five core components — integrated requirements, technology assessment, information assessment, business assessment, and risk quantification.

Integrated requirements establish the required IT risk management practices to be assessed during the M&A transaction. Assessment practices and criteria are established by identifying and aligning the applicable IT risk-related business requirements for each of the common IT risk management areas (see above). These should include:

Acquiring and acquired organizations’ internal IT risk-related policies and standards for each of the common IT risk management areas previously mentioned

This particular IT risk management component is especially benefical to those organizations that worry about compliance such as How does the “new” operating structure comply with SOX quickly?’ By establishing and evaluating integrated requirements early in the IT due diligence process, the acquiring organization should have already identified the SOX related requirements and their impact on the other organization’s operations. Once the M&A transaction has been executed, the acquiring organization should be able to quickly apply their SOX control framework to the acquired organization and assimilate the various reporting entities into the new organization’s compliance testing and reporting process.

Third party contractual arrangement adequacy for addressing sensitive information handling

The business assessment considers technology strategy alignment with the business, business process control integrity & automation, and governance & compliance matters. Generally, this assessment will consider:

IT strategy that is not aligned with the current and future business requirements

Current systems that are not suitable for business requirements

Inefficient manual work-around procedures that are required to operate the business

Level of system automation that does not match the level disclosed by management

Recently-integrated business systems that have internal control integrity issues

Insufficient governance of IT system projects that could result in hidden future IT costs or write down of IT assets due to inappropriate system development

The risk quantification translates identified IT risks into financial impact statements and helps prioritize them for consideration in the final M&A transaction decision.

Today’s risk and compliance environment compels organizations that are developing M&A strategies to integrate IT risk management into their M&A planning and implementation processes. Left unaddressed, IT risk issues can fundamentally affect the overall M&A strategy and desired value creation. A properly structured IT risk management framework and readiness diagnostic can provide practical insights into the information and technology risk issues. Including IT risk management from the outset can make the M&A picture complete, rather than an unfinished puzzle. ##

Bill Kobel(bkobel@deloitte.com) is a Principal and John Gimpert (jgimpert@deloitte.com) is a Partnerwith Deloitte & Touche LLP.

Webinar provides expertise to combine current PCI DSS work with other IT regulations.

Austin, TX (PRWEB) October 24, 2008 — Compliance Spectrum, a provider of expert solutions for compliance management, today announced that it will host a webinar, October 29th, 12:00 p.m. EST, that will provide IT leaders with a quick start to understanding and complying with the newest version of the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS).

PCI DSS V1.2 was released earlier this month by the Payment Card Industry Standards Council, which sets the requirements for processing credit and debit cards. The new standard includes several new measures that companies and organizations must adhere to in order to improve the way credit cards and customer data is protected.

During the webinar, Compliance Spectrum officials Steve Helwig, compliance and policy analyst, and Dan Hoffman, director of product management, will cover the primary changes included in PCI DSS V1.2 and demonstrate how Compliance Spectrum Spectra can be used to quickly and easily incorporate these new requirements into a compliance process.

Spectra is an expert solution for IT compliance lifecycle management that maps controls and guidance for managing IT compliance to multiple regulations and standards, including PCI DSS V1.2. The latest version of Spectra enables users to leverage their work and controls for multiple regulations including PCI DSS 1.2 with the ability to map controls for both versions and show overlap.

Also included in the webinar will be a discussion of how Spectra maps PCI DSS requirements to standards or frameworks such as ISO 27002 and COBIT. Participants will also learn how easy it is to combine current PCI DSS work with other regulations such as Sarbanes Oxley and the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act.

Event Details:

Compliance Spectrum Webinar

Complying with PCI V1.2, Quick Start with Spectra

October 29th, 2008

12:00 p.m. EST

To learn more or to register go to www.compliancespectrum.com or call 866-947-2932.